TRIBE NOTES: LaPorta (finally) recalled from AAA

CLEVELAND -- Matt LaPorta, The Forgotten Prospect in the Indians' minor league system, was finally recalled from Columbus Wednesday.

The top prospect in the package of players the Indians received from Milwaukee in last year's CC Sabathia trade was recalled from Columbus to replace outfielder Trevor Crowe, who was placed on the disabled list with a strained right oblique.

LaPorta, who was expected to spend considerable time on the major league roster this year, inexplicably has spent most of the season at Columbus, where he has had a good year.

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In 338 at bats for Columbus LaPorta hit .299, with 17 home runs and 60 RBI.

LaPorta spent three weeks with the Indians in May, but was largely ignored, playing in less than half the games the Indians played in that time, hitting .190 in 42 at bats.

This time he will apparently get more playing time.

"He's going to play regularly, I'm just not sure where," said Manager Eric Wedge. The options are left field, right field, and first base, which are the positions LaPorta played at Columbus.

"He's made some progress since we sent him back down," said Wedge. "What everyone has to remember is that he hasn't had that many professional at bats in his career. We wanted him to get as many at bats at Triple-A as possible and to get as many games as possible under his belt. It was something he needed, and, who knows, he might need some more."

Wedge said the Indians wanted LaPorta to get more experience at first base at Columbus. The Indians don't have an obvious first baseman for 2009, meaning LaPorta could fit into the big league roster there -- or maybe not.

"I don't want to say anything about that until I see him play there," said Wedge. "There's always the chance we could go out and get somebody in the off-season. We'll work off what we see from him defensively at first the rest of the year."

LaPorta was not in the starting lineup Wednesday night because he wasn't expected to arrive at the ballpark until almost game time.

Crowe's nest

The placing of Crowe on the disabled list was unexpected. Although he had missed the previous four games with his oblique injury, Wedge said Tuesday that he was hopeful Crowe would be back in the lineup Wednesday. Instead, Crowe was placed on the DL Wednesday.

"He felt good and looked good (Tuesday), but the MRI said something different," said Wedge.

Crowe had an MRI Wednesday.

"It showed that it's a pretty good strain," Wedge said. "And it merits shutting him down."

Wedge said the best case scenario is that Crowe can be activated sometime in early September.

Project Hafner

Ten months after having surgery to clean out his right shoulder joint, Travis Hafner is still not right. You only have to check his home run (11) and RBI (31) totals, or his batting average with runners in scoring position (.209) to realize that.

Hafner's statistics seem to indicate that his shoulder is getting worse, not better, as the season progresses. He was hitting .289 at the all-star break, but is hitting just .242 since the break. He hit .318 in June, .275 in July, and is hitting .220 in August.

In his last 15 games, Hafner is hitting .200, with 17 strikeouts and four walks in 60 at bats. He has 12 hits, 10 of them singles, no homers, and three RBI.

"The big thing for me is plate discipline," said Hafner. "That's something I've always been good at, that I kind of take for granted. But I've been chasing a lot of pitches lately.

"I haven't been walking much lately. That's something I need to address and really work on. It's tough to hit if you're not giving yourself good pitches to hit."

Although Hafner was expected to be 100 percent physically by the start of this season, that's clearly not been the case.

"We didn't expect it to linger this long, but every injury is different," said Wedge. "I don't think Travis will be 100 percent until next year. Right now his swing is different. I think it's because he's compensated for his shoulder."

Notes

Hitting .346 since the all-star break and .413 in the month of August, Asdrubal Cabrera went into Wednesday's game ninth in the American League with a .316 batting average. . . The Indians went into Wednesday's game having not hit a home run in their last seven games at Progressive Field. That's their longest home homerless streak since they went 13 consecutive games without a home run at old Cleveland Stadium in June of 1991. . . In tonight's series finale at 7:05 p.m. Justin Masterson (3-4, 4.70) will face John Lackey (7-5, 3.88).